Gaining Confidence, Clarity, and Curiosity through Travel
How often do you travel by yourself?
Do you find it exhilarating and freeing or does it bring on anxiety and the fear of the unknown?
No matter what camp you’re in, my guest today aims to help women experience personal growth and enrich their lives through travel!
In this episode, I’m joined by Cheryl Burke, founder of Resetting Joy, a life and travel coaching company.
Through her own experiences and love for travel, Cheryl shares the power of solo travel.
She discusses the benefits of overcoming fear and traveling alone, which many clients of her experience. Cheryl stresses the importance of being coachable in order to build the mindset that fosters intuition and self-trust.
Listen in to hear her tips for safe and enjoyable travel experiences, the transformation and mindset shifts that can occur through travel, and having a support system in place to provide you peace of mind.
Overall, Cheryl encourages women to gain confidence, clarity, and curiosity through travel while providing resources to help them plan their trips.
Takeaways
Solo travel can be a transformative experience, allowing individuals to discover their capabilities and build self-trust.
Building intuition and self-trust is essential for navigating unfamiliar situations while traveling alone.
Expanding comfort zones to overcome fear to prepare for traveling alone can lead to personal growth and transformation.
Traveling can help women gain confidence, clarity, and curiosity, and open their minds to different cultures and perspectives.
Connect with Cheryl on Instagram at Resetting Joy
Check out her website, Resetting Joy.
Download her Smart Traveler Checklist.
Listen to her podcast Wanderlust Enabled and listen to episode 9 What Ifs & Scary Things That Keep People From Traveling.
Loved this episode? Share it with your friends and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts!
@reinventingthearena on Instagram
Cheryl Burke is the Founder and Chief Wanderlust Enabler at Resetting Joy, a life & travel coaching company. She approaches her work with clients with the enthusiasm of a long-time traveler and travel advocate as well as her expertise as a life coach with a deep background in psychology.
She takes a holistic approach to everything she does, seeking harmony in all things. Cheryl is always ready to talk about your dreams for your next great adventure and how to make it a reality!
In her free time, she loves to travel (of course), hike, drink way too much coffee, and work valiantly through her stack of books to be read.
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TRANSCRIPT OF EPISODE
Molly (00:00)
Why hello there lady. Welcome back to Reinventing the Arena podcast. I'm your host, Molly Connolly. In today's episode, I have Sheryl Burke, the founder and chief wander lust enabler at Resetting Joy, a life and travel coaching company. She approaches her work with clients with the enthusiasm of a longtime traveler and travel advocate, as well as her experience as a life coach with a deep background in psychology.
Cheryl is always ready to talk about her dreams for your next adventure and to make it a reality. Welcome to the podcast, Cheryl.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (00:33)
Hi, thanks for having me.
Molly (00:36)
I'm so happy you're here because first of all, we met right before the pandemic started, like in 2019. And back then, when I first met you, you were talking about some of your travels and you coached me through this idea of taking a solo trip, which I ended up doing a few months later after we met. And back then, the reason why it was so important to me was because I was single and I was actually
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (00:42)
Mm-hmm.
Molly (01:05)
waiting to take trips like this for once I had an ideal partner because I was like, oh, these are the memories I want to make with them. And what was wonderful is that my solo trip did so much for me and it became part of my transformation, which I'm very grateful that you got to be a part of. Will you share how Traveling Adventures led you to become this woman who has created this company for
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (01:23)
too.
Molly (01:33)
other people to take travels and also as a life coach.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (01:37)
Absolutely. Travel has all has been part of my life literally as long as I can remember. My parents tell me that I went on my first trip when I was six months old and I've been on a billion, not a billion. I'm not that old. I've been on I've been on a bunch since I've been everywhere that I can I can get to. I have a huge bucket list still left. But I've learned over the years that
Yes, you're going to make mistakes. Yes, things are going to go wrong. But usually they become funny stories and there are lessons to be learned. So I make a lot of mistakes. Still, I've been traveling literally my whole life and I make tons of mistakes. But what I do is I use those to travel better the next time. And I also try to help people not make the same mistakes I've made.
Molly (02:32)
and
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (02:32)
So I always go out on these, what we refer to as it's a hairbrain scheme. I have a hairbrain scheme. Let's go do this thing. And my husband is totally on board. He's like, okay, let's go. And then I figure out how to do it. And that's the other thing that I've gotten really good at over the years is the research, the finding the things to go do and figuring some things out so that we have some structure in our trips, so we're not totally flying by the seat of our pants, but that we have tons of freedom.
Molly (02:40)
Hahaha.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (03:01)
to go and explore and meet new people and just really enjoy the new place that we're in. And my daughter has been raised very much the same way. We've taken her everywhere we can think of. Well, not everywhere we can think of, but everywhere we can afford to take her that we can think of. And she's been everywhere and she's very much a citizen of the world, which is exactly what we wanted to do for her. And alongside, we have also become citizens of the world.
Molly (03:01)
Hmm.
Right.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (03:31)
So it's a lot of fun.
Molly (03:33)
That's fascinating. I can't even imagine having the travels that, A, you've gone on, or your daughter, at such a young age, because she's just about to graduate high school and get into college, wherever that may be. And having those experiences to travel is already going to set her up for success in so many different ways as she becomes an adult. And now that I think about it, I'm
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (03:44)
she is.
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Molly (04:01)
What is your next trip? I know I wasn't planning on asking you this, but what is your guys' next trip as a family? Or even... Solo.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (04:07)
Um, actually my next trip is one that I'm leading. I'm taking people, anybody who wants to go with me. Um, I have just a handful of spots because I want to take just a few people. I think that's going to make for a better trip. I'm going to go to Italy. We're going to do Florence and Tuscany and Rome. We'll do a day trip out to Venice. We'll go, we're going to be all over the place. So I'm headed to Italy this fall.
Molly (04:22)
Hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (04:32)
And that is that it's going to be a great fun. Part of it will be me on my own just for a few days. That's also largely because I want to make sure I'm in country before guests arrive so I can make sure that there's someone there to greet them. So, yes, that is my next. That's my next big hair, brain scheme.
Molly (04:33)
goodness.
Okay, well with that, I'm curious, why did he choose fall for Italy? Like, is there a specific timeframe, where he's saying why?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (04:57)
Um, I did, I did it on purpose. Um, a really good time to travel is what they call shoulder season. Um, so it's just off of peak season. So peak season in most places is summer and Europe is no, no exception. So a great time to go is, you know, April, May or, um, September, October, November there, thereabouts, uh, October, November, especially because yes, the weather is a little cooler.
You might get a little bit more rain, but there aren't as many people there. So you get a better experience. I am going to fairly popular places. So it's not like we're going to totally have Rome to ourselves. Besides there are millions of people who live there, but that's beside the point. But that's why I'm going then is that it is off peak.
Molly (05:30)
Mm-hmm.
Hahaha
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (05:49)
So you have more space, more authentic experiences. The prices are a little bit lower. So it puts the trip into a price point that more people can afford. And it is, I am only taking adults. So I'm not trying to work around school schedules.
Molly (05:58)
Mm-hmm.
That's smart, that's smart. What are some unexpected lessons that you or even your clients have learned about themselves in solo trips, like how you just recently explained, like wanting to be there for when your guests arrive when you go to Italy in the fall?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (06:21)
What I find is that people figure out how capable they are and how powerful that they are. They get back in touch with their intuition a bit more and I'll talk about that a little later I think. But just that you really can do it. And sometimes people want some help with the research and they want, you know, how to's and what ifs and all of that. But when I do a lot of that, actually, that's mostly what I help people with.
But once they're on the ground, like literally on the trip, it's just them. And then they realize, wait, I actually do know what I'm doing. I can do this. This is fabulous. And they get to get in touch with who they are and what makes them tick and what they love. And maybe the rhythm of a day that's best for them. Maybe they don't get the opportunity to do that in their nine to five. And they realize, yeah, 9 a.m. is not my peak time, but you know, watch out at 10 30, that kind of thing.
So I'm a little bit closer to 1030, I'll admit. So there's a lot of that. And then when you travel by yourself, it's actually easier to meet other people because it's just you. So nobody feels like they're interrupting something if they talk to you. Or if you ask something, it's not a whole group of people coming to ask them, it's one person. So it's easier to meet people.
and just sort of become a little bit more of the cult part of the culture. Um, I, my expertise lies in Europe. That's I've done a lot of traveling there. That's just basically what I'm known for. And you can go sit in a cafe pretty well anywhere all by yourself. And nobody's going to look sideways at you because everybody does it, which is lovely. So you have, you will have tables full of people and you will have a lot of tables where there's just one and nobody, nobody worries. And I enjoy it quite honestly.
Molly (07:48)
I love that.
Well, and like I listened to your podcast about your podcast episode about introverts and I took so much away from that because I'm like, I'm an introvert. Some people don't realize that about me. Like I really need a lot of downtime in order to rejuvenate and recharge. And what I really loved it and how you pulled out how no one's going to freak out or think you're weird if you bring a book or a journal or sit by yourself on these things. Like that's just part of their culture. And one funny thing from that episode that I have to.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (08:22)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Molly (08:47)
just say about if you were to travel solo, especially to Europe, I think is a huge win or lesson if you wanna take it, not to wear sports teams or college shirts or whatnot. That's not a thing over there as much. And so it's kind of like, you wanna blend in and you wanna enjoy the present moment in these locations and be having an authentic experience.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (09:00)
Mm-hmm.
not a thing. No.
Molly (09:15)
So sometimes that includes just blending in a little bit more. So I really like how you pulled out that the solo trips can really, you know, show you what you're capable of and at the same time like really harness that intuition and from my experience I didn't, I wasn't even at the level of intuition yet. I was building self-trust still. Like trusting myself that not only am I capable like
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (09:39)
Mm-hmm.
Molly (09:42)
Can I trust myself that I'm gonna make the right decision to do X, Y, and Z today or the right choice when there's really no right or wrong choice? You're just experiencing the vacation.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (09:50)
now.
Exactly. I always say that travel is life condensed. So it will, there's not really right or wrong in life either in terms of, you know, how am I, what job am I going to take? One job's not right and the other one's wrong. That's not a thing. We think it is. We put it in our head that it is, but it's not a thing. And traveling is very much that. It also pulls you so fully out of your comfort zone that you kind of have to figure yourself out.
Molly (10:21)
Yep.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (10:21)
Even as, you know, you're like, but I'm a grownup. I've been living in this body and this world all these years. And how do I not know this? Because you've been living in mostly the same kind of place. So when you go other places and you're out of your comfort zone, there's more to learn. Which I think is fun.
Molly (10:36)
Oh yeah, I mean, I love the fact too, like there's so much more to learn. And sometimes like learning about ourselves, like you brought up the capabilities and intuition and discussing the idea of self-trust, but when you have clients that are thinking about traveling alone, especially like a woman, like do you have moments where they have fears or some struggles come up when you're talking to them?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (11:01)
Yeah. I mean, this actually comes up with all the women that I talk to, not even, not just those who choose to travel on their own. A big one is, of course, there's a safety concern. They're just like, am I going to be safe? Am I going to, how do I get here? How do we get there? So I spend a lot of time teaching how to spot things that, you know, maybe aren't going to go the way that you want them to go.
I have a whole thing that I do with people on. These are common scams, basically to distract you because you're not likely to be mugged in Europe. But you might have somebody try to pickpocket you. In fact, if you go to a bigger city, a more touristed place, the chances that you're gonna run into somebody who's got those ideas are pretty high. But there are so many things you can do to just not be the person that they're like, oh yeah, that's the one we're going after.
Molly (11:34)
Oh yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (12:00)
Um, because you won't be hurt. You'll just lose your stuff, which is not dangerous necessarily, but it's super annoying, especially if you have to navigate the whole system in another language that you don't speak. So I do talk to people about, you know, these are some common distraction techniques, don't take, you know, that nice guy who comes up to you and he's talking to you and he gives you a bracelet and puts it on your wrist. It's not a gift. He wants money throughout and give it back to him. That kind of thing.
Molly (12:01)
Mm-mm.
Yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (12:28)
That's a really common one these days. Don't take flowers, don't take any of this. Cause it's like, I know you're adorable cause I'm looking at you and you're cute and why wouldn't people give you things? However, that's not why they're doing that. So I do talk to people a bit about that.
And the other part is that for women especially, they're going to be out in the great unknown. In our daily lives, we've got this stuff wired. Like we know where everything is, we know how to do all of the things, and it's all figured out. But when you are in a foreign place and you are the foreigner, you have to figure it all out. So what if I get ill? What if...
Molly (12:53)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (13:14)
Um, I need medicine. What if, what if, what if. So I just walk through people through a lot of things just to settle their minds. A lot of the unknown can become known before you leave. I don't advocate an hour by hour, minute by minute itinerary. I just, I just don't. Some people want that and that's fine. And I will help them build that, but that's not what I'm an advocate for. Um, I like to have people have some, some downtime and some spare time to go do whatever it is that they want.
So I try to equip people with
the information they'll need, to go and figure that stuff out even on the ground to make sure that they, you know, understand what's even out there.
Molly (13:54)
Right? You know, it's something that a friend of mine brought up is like, even just, and maybe you too as well, that the grocery stores in Europe are a lot smaller, there's a lot of less options, like knowing which one would hypothetically be the best bet, because not everything's going to be in English when you travel, like those are all those sort of things. I can definitely see how, and obviously I have never traveled to Europe yet. I'll just put yet in there.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (14:05)
Okay.
Right?
Don't worry, it's coming. I believe it, it's all coming.
Molly (14:25)
But those solo trips that we take, I can only imagine what it would be like to be in a country where you don't speak, you know, the native language and how that affects, you know, maybe your struggles and your fears. So I like how you said how you help them with those. What are some ways that maybe do you need to coach them through to help even further
Where you can coach them through so they have more resources internally when they're on the ground
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (14:57)
I am a big proponent of getting back in touch with your intuition. It is great for you in all parts of life. It is especially great for you when you travel. And people who are, who are socialized as women usually have it socialized out of them because they need to be, because remember when, when there are little girls, they're basically taught to be compliant and they are praised for being compliant.
Molly (15:01)
Hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (15:23)
So what they're doing is they're doing what somebody else wants of them and they're getting rewarded for that. So they learn that what we should do is always what somebody else wants. However, there are some times when as, even as a little girl, you think this isn't for me, I don't like this. This isn't, I don't want to do this, but for decades you're told, no, do it this way, do it this way. This is fine. It's fine. You know, that person's really nice. This is how we do it. That kind of thing. By the time you are an adult,
and have the means to go travel on your own, you're not in touch with your intuition anymore. You don't listen to it because you've been taught not to. So I do spend a fair bit of time helping people get back in touch with their intuition. And we test it in small ways. We don't go to the airport. I don't advocate, let's go to the airport, ring your passport, get the first flight you can get over an ocean and see what happens. That would be a little much.
Molly (16:16)
Yeah, that sounds great, no.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (16:18)
I mean, if you want to do that, like if there, if any of your listeners, like, that sounds amazing, I'm definitely doing that. Please go and then please tell me how it went because I'm dying to hear. But most of the time that's not the, that's not the first step for somebody. So we start with getting back into our intuition, just, um, in mindfulness practices, you know, getting back in touch with what our body is telling us, going out into a neighborhood in your town that you're not familiar with.
and walking around and seeing how you feel. You know, take a right, take a left, did you get lost? Okay, do you think you can find your way back? Remember, most of the time, and I always tell people, you don't have to be attached to your phone all the time, but do bring it with you because you do have GPS. And they almost all come with a translation app, and you can download languages for offline use. So that's a big help traveling overseas. But I got off on a little rabbit trail there. That's it, that's the word.
Molly (17:16)
Heheheheh
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (17:17)
Um, so that's a big thing is that I do a lot with intuition and starting to trust yourself again. And then knowing that you'll know what's the right thing is to do. I have several stories, either by myself or even with my husband and my child, where we would walk off the beaten path. We do this a lot and I always advocate for it. Walk off the beaten path, just a few blocks off the tourist core.
or to a slightly less busy part of the city. And we'll walk down and we're looking at the art and it's amazing. And all of a sudden, my daughter and I both stopped dead and went, nope. And my husband's like, what? We're like, no, this isn't it. This isn't it for us. We're not doing that. We're gonna turn around and go back. He says, I don't understand. I don't, why? It looks fine. I said, well, yes, but not all of us are over six feet tall and male. And whatever it was, neither one of us can explain to you, by the way.
Molly (18:11)
Mmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (18:14)
what it was, but we both stopped at the exact same time. I went, nope, this isn't for us. And we turned around and left. Don't know why, but we trusted it. And that's how actually we're raising our child is to trust it, but it's counter-cultural. So that's the kind of thing that I want people to do is just start in your hometown. And then once you're feeling a little bit better kind of in your everyday, then maybe take a weekend trip to a bigger city or a place that you're not familiar with.
Molly (18:29)
Exactly.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (18:44)
and try there because when you're already out of your comfort zone, it breaks down some of those barriers and you can actually, um, access more of that. So that's why you can make so many changes. Why people say life changing trip. Yes, you saw and did amazing things. You met fantastic people, but you also realized you could live in an entirely different way. That's what some of that is. And you figured out some things about yourself. That's just the stuff that we don't talk about.
Molly (18:54)
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, and I love that you bring it up, like that specific example. I feel like it's really, women are more in touch with their intuition than men. I think there's quite a bit of information out there about that. What I love the most is having to acknowledge and speak that to a partner of like, we're not six foot and male. And one thing that...
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (19:23)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Molly (19:38)
I work on with my clients too, like discussing intuition and self-trust is also trying to decipher is that intuition or is that fear? Because just like what you said, like you don't know what it was, intuition usually, it has an unknown reason behind it, right? A fear is like, the reason why I feel this way is because it reminds me of this moment here and it's like, okay, so we need to talk that out and work through is that really fear and wisdom like trying to protect you?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (19:46)
Mm-hmm.
Molly (20:08)
Or is there like intuition that's guiding you and it's an indifferent type of wise voice that's coming in to help you in a certain situation? So I love how you call that out. I was, as a young girl, I, in college, my swim team at the time when I was in college, we took a trip to Curacao. It was my first big trip and I loved it. And one day we were allowed to go walk in the market and my boyfriend at the time.
We started walking and we met some nice people. And next thing you know, I got distracted by this man telling me like, there's also this art piece back here. And so I started following him and it kept going and it was in a down an alley. And I was like, where am I going? And next thing you know, my boyfriend is coming with me cause he's like, hey, we need to come back here. And by the time he got up to me and we stopped, there was five other men around us. And...
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (20:48)
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Molly (21:01)
We were, I was 18, 19 years old, had no clue what the hell was going on. And him, he's like, okay, we have to go. And we started to leave. And thankfully other people from the swim team were like all of a sudden right there and like, hey guys, what you doing? And those people left. But back then I literally had no clue until we got back to the market of like what could have really happened. Because I was completely naive, just to be brutally honest, my parents helped me.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (21:06)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Molly (21:29)
kept my brother and I completely sheltered about like what the real world was like in a sense that these sort of things we didn't think would happen to us. And so it's having to learn, like you said, taking those small little trips in your hometown, like can you push your boundary of what's comfortable for you at the same time, not strike fear, but also lead into that intuition and say, okay, this is a new experience right here. My intuition says no more. I'm going to go back and just learning how to expand your comfort zone in a safe way.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (21:38)
Mm-hmm.
Molly (21:59)
So don't do what I did and just like, yeah, sure. I'll totally go check out that art piece, but speak into your intuition. So.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (22:04)
Yeah, no. You're like, if it's not 10 feet from here, I'm not going.
Molly (22:09)
Yeah, it's the smarter thing, you know, some things. And it's, once again, it's a beautiful thing that you have taught that to your daughter so that she gets to have all these experiences no matter where her feet lands. So now, oh, go ahead. Because I know, did you tell me right, that she's looking at Netherlands for college, right?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (22:20)
Yeah. Yeah, and that's up for debate. We'll see where she is.
Could be anywhere.
She's looking, yes, she's looking on a couple of continents for college. So we'll see where she lands. It does. I'm like, I already know. Well, there's direct daily flights over there, so it'll be fine.
Molly (22:37)
Oh my god. That just means more travel for you and your husband.
Oh my gosh. And so I know that we just talked about, you know, the cool experiences of building your intuition and how much we know that it was really freeing. But can you like share maybe a time where maybe either you traveled by yourself or maybe even just a client, like a freeing experience that they had and how transformative it was for them or how it can be?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (23:14)
Absolutely. I actually had one client that, now she was, she's by herself and she hadn't been. And she thought, well, I have a whole different life than I used to have and I love to travel and now I'm scared to travel. So we worked on how to do this by yourself. there was a specific trip she wanted to go on. I'll start there.
And so how are you going to approach this? What parts of this trip intrigue you? Why? What is it that you want to get out of the trip? And that's a really big thing, whether you're traveling by yourself or with other people, always figure out what it is you want out of the trip, because then you can craft your trip to make that work. So we figured out what she wanted and I helped her with some of the unknowns, like some of the stuff she needed to do by herself and navigate by herself was going to be kind of tricky. So I helped her with that. And then we worked on the social part.
the internal part and then the social part. How do you feel when you do this and such here? Okay, how do you want to feel? How do we get you there? And so she went, she enjoyed her trip, she practiced everything that we had talked about, just beautifully actually, met some wonderful people, had a fantastic time, came back and of course I asked all the questions because I'm just generally interested. Like client or not, I wanna know about your trips.
And then the next year she went on a much more challenging trip that was not to Europe, but was to Egypt. And she did just fine. And she had a fantastic, a fantastic time, met more wonderful people. And just, she's been able to do a lot more than she would have been able to do otherwise. If she hadn't been willing to say, I want to do this on my own. I really want to stretch my comfort zone.
Molly (24:45)
Wow.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (25:06)
So I just got to partner with her for a little bit of the time. And now I get to watch from afar as she does super cool things.
Molly (25:06)
Yeah.
Well, and isn't that amazing that she wasn't, she was coupled before and then now she wasn't and she was scared to travel alone and then now she's taken two large trips and sometimes to places that women would, you know, I don't know very many women that travel alone to Egypt. I've had a few in my lifetime that discuss those ideas or wants or even like women that want to go.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (25:25)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Molly (25:39)
I don't even know. I always hear Europe, yes. It's like the place that most American women want to go, but the ones that maybe I've never even heard of or randomly be like, I want to go to Thailand by myself. I'm like, that sounds fabulous, but it also sounds so different because Europe still seems so safe in my head. You know what I mean?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (25:43)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, well, and Europe in general is really quite safe. In fact, you are safer in almost any part of Europe than you are in all of the US. So it's actually a very safe place. It's also a place full of people who are looking for tourists. So you do have to pay attention. Like generally speaking, it's just pickpockets and petty crimes, but you do have to pay attention. But-
Molly (26:11)
Hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (26:28)
We know that, like that part we were trained on. We do know that we have to pay attention. And yes, her trip to Egypt was partially on her own, but partially with a group. So it wasn't like she was out there just willy-nilly wandering through the country for three weeks. Like, but there was, you know, some people she didn't know and all of that. So I'm not saying people can't travel by themselves by any means, it just wasn't her experience and I didn't want to be misleading.
Molly (26:32)
That's good.
Oh good, okay.
That's still a great experience.
Gotcha. That's amazing. And like, when you think about her, what shifts did you help her make specifically in order to have that kind of transformation?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (27:09)
Part of it was just belief in herself again, and just there was a confidence piece, a big confidence piece to it. And we worked on how we see the world differently now and maybe how the world sees us a little bit differently while we travel. And just went from there. She was very, she was always open to insights, always willing to try something.
worked on all kinds of different habits and different things. I mean, she was, she was really lovely to work with. I enjoyed her greatly. Um, so yeah, she was, she had to be open to it. It wasn't something that I said, well, if you want to go on this thing, these are all the things you're going to have to do. And she was like, well, I don't want to do that, but okay, I'll try. That wasn't how it was. Um, so she was, she was ready to, to start and willing to try and not afraid of making mistakes.
Molly (27:57)
Yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (28:05)
So that's a big thing. When anybody travels, you're going to, I still make mistakes. I teach people how to do this for a living and I still make mistakes. It's part of it. And it's kind of part of the fun of it as far as I'm concerned, so.
Molly (28:05)
Yes.
Oh yeah, I mean like the same thing with Brad and my in our relationship. We make mistakes and it's not like it's perfect. Like that's just how it works of why we do what we do. Like why you are a coach on, you know, having, helping people travel, be a travel advocate and coach at the same time. You're still going to make mistakes because that's still going to help you and experience this again, as well as share your lessons with clients if they need it or finding different ways to help coach the client.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (28:28)
Mm-hmm. No.
Molly (28:48)
But the most important thing is having a client that wants to be coached because if they are uncoachable, you can't help them. Like that's a huge thing. And like you said, the willingness to do it and understanding that there will be setbacks. I feel that a lot of people can be like, I'll buy this thing, I'll hire this person and then everything will be perfect. And it's like, that's not how it goes. So yeah, I love that.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (28:56)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, agreed. And one of the things that I tell all of my clients, every single one of my clients is, okay, listen to me here. Something is going to go wrong on your trip. I don't know what. I don't know when. I don't know. But it's going to happen. So when it happens, you're just expecting it. But what we do now is we set you up with the information and the skills to manage the things that might happen.
Molly (29:25)
Yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (29:41)
so that when something happens, and it might just be, oh, we got lost on the Circle Line in London. My response to that is, congratulations, you're one step closer to being a local because everybody gets lost on the Circle Line in London. Literally everybody gets lost. Because it says it's a Circle Line and it's not. It doesn't actually connect. So little trip, little tip, if you haven't been to London and you're heading soon and you're planning on taking the Circle Line,
Molly (29:42)
Mm-hmm.
I'm sorry.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (30:10)
Pay attention because it doesn't actually go in a full circle. Um, moving on. Um, but what I do is I make sure that they like, where's the embassy? What, how do you, if you have a medical issue, how do you call, what's their version of nine one one? Um, do you have travel insurance? and by the way, folks, I'm going to just tell you a little pro tip here.
Do not leave the US without travel insurance. I don't mean the travel insurance that you're offered when you're buying your plane ticket. That is mostly to ensure that if you cancel your trip, you don't lose all your money on the plane ticket. What I'm talking about is independent travel insurance that will help you, will help cover things like medical issues, delayed trips, lost baggage, et cetera, et cetera, because remember,
Molly (30:36)
So yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (30:59)
your health insurance does not work over there. They don't care who you have or how much you pay.
Molly (31:05)
I got a real cool, right. I had previously in the past, before I left corporate world, I worked for an insurance company. And one of their reasons of discussing travel insurance was something from a coworker had gone to Mexico and they were doing ATV rides. And she, I can't remember if it was like someone that they had.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (31:13)
Mm-hmm.
Hehe
Molly (31:30)
you know, worked within the group that was driving or if it was her husband or whatnot, but the person she was holding onto the person in the back and they hit a bump and she fell off and she broke her ankle. And what they wanted to do was to cut off her ankle. That's how remote she was. They couldn't take her into wherever larger city it was. And so they were like, we need your credit card or we need a card to pay for $30,000 to remove your ankle. And they're like, no.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (31:40)
Mm-hmm.
Molly (31:59)
that's not how this works. So they were getting scammed at the same time in a sense. And then they went to another hospital in a bigger city and they're like, oh, it's broken. It's going to cost you $75,000 to sit here in the hospital for two weeks. And they're like for a broken ankle. So they ended up canceling their trip short and coming back and they're like,
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (31:59)
No, we will not be doing that.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Molly (32:22)
Thank God they had Travels Insurance and they were already knowledgeable about like a few things as well as saying, okay, this is a broken ankle. This isn't anything else, but imagine five days with a broken ankle of being told all these things and just having to deal then also with the flight coming back and oh, ow, but yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (32:31)
Yeah.
Yes. Yeah. Beautiful thing about travel insurance is it comes with a company and you can call them and say, what do I do? Where do I go? Tell me the things. And a lot of times they will pay for you to come back to the States. If you have, um, if you have a medical issue, they'll also bring you back if you die, by the way. So, I mean, let's hope nobody ever needs that, but they will. Um, so there's a lot of companies. They're not just going to leave. Yeah. Um,
Molly (33:01)
I'm sorry, that was such a good thing. But no.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (33:06)
So there are a lot of companies out there and they're usually really reasonable rates. And it's based on what you're planning on doing. Your average trip to Europe, you can just get a standard plan. If you're gonna go ATV riding, it might require you to get the slight step up plan. They have Adventure or Explorer or whatever it is, because they're like, that's a higher risk of you breaking something.
Molly (33:07)
That's good to know though.
That was so affordable.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (33:30)
And there are some things they don't cover. Like if you're, if you're submitting Everest, they're not covering it. You have to get different insurance for that. Um, so that kind of thing, but. You know, there, there are things that you can do ahead of time. There are things that you can set up with your phone and your credit card and all of these other things you can tell the state department where you're going to be. So that if something happens, they at least know kind of where you are in country. I wouldn't, I wouldn't bet on.
Molly (33:38)
Oh, yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (34:00)
them getting you out, but you'll be accounted for. they'll try to account for you anyway. So, I mean, because things happen, you just, life is unpredictable, just full stop it is. And vacation's no different. Life was going to happen whether you're on a trip or not. So there are things you can do to make life easier and be less scared that you're not gonna be able to handle it if something happens.
Um, so a lot of the things that we're talking about are actually covered in the things that, um, are linked in the two notes down here. I've got a smart travelers checklist. I've actually got an episode of my own podcast that talks about sort of the what ifs and the scary things that keep people from traveling, because that's the reason why a lot of people don't go.
Yes, money is an issue. Yes, schedules are an issue. 100%. But most of the time the people that I'm talking to, the reason they haven't gone yet is because they're scared about things. So we remove the scary, we make some of the unknown known, we give you a toolbox of things that you can do. If something happens, we set you up with some contingencies. Now just go and have fun and know that you'll be able to handle it. And you can do that for every trip you're going to go on.
Molly (35:13)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (35:14)
I mean, if people want to work with me on every trip, I'm glad to do that, but they don't necessarily need to.
Molly (35:20)
Well, and like that's what's great is like, I was so scared to take my own trip, not only because I was afraid that I was gonna make memories that I'm gonna say, oh, I wish I would have had this person with me. And of course, to be honest, I hadn't worked through that stuff yet. I mean, we both were first starting our coaching certifications. So I wasn't prepared for mentally at the time.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (35:24)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Molly (35:46)
oh, if I go alone and if something happens, what's gonna happen to me? What am I going to do? And yes, having some structure and some backup plans were really helpful, but I guarantee you this checklist from Cheryl,
on this discussion of traveling alone is going to be extremely helpful. So ladies, you should definitely check that out if you are interested in traveling, especially if you're looking to travel to Europe.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (36:13)
And another thing is if you are traveling solo, and I do not care if you leave the US or not, or even if you're like going for a hike in a lovely park or something, just let somebody know where you are. If you're gonna travel, especially if you're gonna travel overseas, set up a person with your sketched out itinerary.
Molly (36:27)
Yes.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (36:35)
And you could be traveling with nine people. I still do this. Let somebody know about where you're gonna be. And then plan to check in with them every once in a while, just so that somebody is paying attention to the fact that you are where you're supposed to be. You're not stuck somewhere, you're not lost, you're not hurt. You've got a kind of a, a phone a friend, a lifeline, if you will.
And I say about the hiking because a lot of times people go out for a lovely afternoon stroll and then nobody knows where they went and they're missing for a while. So like, even if you go to the national parks, you might say to, I don't know, your mom or your best friend, we're going on a hike. We'll call you when we get back because it could be weeks before somebody goes out there again. So just
Molly (37:07)
Mm-hmm.
Oh yeah, actually that's a fun story, which I will say that my parents just, they went to their, went to Costa Rica for the second time. They went last year. They just recently got back. And the first time my parents were like, we're going to Costa Rica. Here's the day we leave and here's the day we get back. Okay, great. They never bothered. They were like, okay, we'll contact you through WhatsApp. Great. She sent me a few things. We were like, okay, great, whatever. No big deal.
I contact them the day after they get home, hypothetically. And I'm like, hey, how was your trip? And she's like, we are stuck in Denver. This was the worst trip back ever. All these things, whatnot. She's like, we barely slept. All these, I was like, okay, I'm gonna give them two days. My sister-in-law didn't know and was like asking all these questions and all this. And I'm like, hey, just an FYI, mom and dad are trying to sleep. Like, I'm just like, just letting you know that they're really tired and frustrated. They, when they went to Costa Rica this time,
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (37:55)
Oh no!
Mm-hmm.
Molly (38:14)
They were like, we're going for five days, but that's it. They didn't bother to check in. But they always taught us that we had to check in. So I was like, hey, when you go on your trips, you need to tell me where you're going. They just came through St. Louis at the time of our recording this on Sunday, so a few days ago, and they're going to Florida and staying there for a whole month with their friends, having a great time, gonna see my, my mom's gonna see her brother.
But on the way, I was like, oh, are you gonna stop in Atlanta and see my brother and sister-in-law? And she's like, no, we're gonna go to the Bourbon Trail or the, whatever it is, the Bourbon Trail in the Kentucky or Tennessee or something. Yeah, they've already been there four or five times. I'm like, okay, well, we're going to the little ones that nobody really goes to. I'm like, well, where are those located? We don't know. It's just, we're gonna follow the map. I'm like, okay, once again, we're gonna go back to being a parent for the parents and tell me where you're going. But.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (38:50)
It's a bit suburban trail in Kentucky, yeah.
Tell me where you're going or like share your dot. Like, yeah.
Molly (39:11)
Yeah, yeah. So it's very helpful, like as we get older as women, to also remind our parents, like, can you do this? Because if an emergency happens for them, normally, like, if you flip it the other way around, as children, our parents or our significant others are our emergency contacts. You would think that our parents, at some point, would be like, our children might be our emergency contact.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (39:20)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Well, remember that, um, I didn't mention this to your listeners, but you know this. My mom was a travel agent. Um, that's another reason why I've been traveling everywhere. And so she's like, okay, here's where we're going. This is the company. This is the route. And, and she puts me down on the paperwork, but, and quite frankly, I put her down on my paperwork too. Um, but that that's a, it's easier. But.
Not always. I mean, really, it's only when we leave the country that we do that. So you never know. You never know. So you want to make sure that somebody has some idea where you're going to be so that, you know, they could call her telling me like, have you seen her?
Molly (39:58)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm just going to be honest, too. Like my husband travels a lot for work. And so when Brad, we were talking about what he was doing last February, because I was like, I swear you were traveling a lot more this time last year. And he's like, well, there was a hurricane in Florida and I was gone for two weeks, back for a week, gone for another two weeks. And so sometimes he travels for natural disasters. Well, sometimes natural disaster zones, sometimes they don't have service still or, you know,
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (40:32)
Yeah.
Molly (40:33)
Knowing these things, like what hotel people are staying in if something happens is also really helpful because I don't even know if it's still hurricane season right now, so it's like traveling and knowing those seasons of things. If you, it's not like Europe gets hurricanes, but I'm just like thinking of Florida or whatever, when people travel that south towards the equator. So lots of good information that Cheryl has that we totally go off on tangents about. This is just like how we roll.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (40:47)
Mm-hmm
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yep.
Always. This is just sitting in on us, the two of us having coffee. Like, this is how we roll.
Molly (41:07)
And I love it too. You know, one thing that I love about you because you have so much travel experience and like how you did bring up your mom was a travel agent and all the other adventures that you love to bring to your clients. Like what do you hope women can experience as they venture either by themselves or with a partner?
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (41:29)
I really want them to grow into their confidence. A lot of times we've got, you know, the world sort of has a tendency to beat folks down. So I really want the travel to help with confidence. Clarity is another huge thing. Like when you are physically removed from, I always joke, put an ocean between you and your troubles.
But when you are physically removed from your daily life, you have a different perspective. So you can get some clarity on, okay, it's not just that I'm having an issue in this season of life or this project at work. This is actually no longer serving me. And now that's information you have that you can go and say, all right, maybe I do need to make a change. Or
Molly (42:12)
Hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (42:18)
I really do love this part about what I do or about where I live or about how I live. So giving give yourself that distance is really helpful to open become open to curiosity like ooh, what's that? How does that happen? Why you know, why would I do this?
It's lovely to go, especially somewhere where you are like full on a foreigner. I mean, this country is enormous and there are tons of different cultures and subcultures and everything within the U.S. It is. You can have a very rich travel experience and never leave the United States. However, if you have the inclination and the desire to do so, I would suggest go somewhere where you are like fully foreign and learn how people do things differently because there are billions of people on this planet.
who live other places and have big, beautiful lives doing things entirely differently than you do. And maybe there are some things that they do or things that they hold as truth that you maybe don't know or don't understand yet. What could you learn? How could you change? How could you enrich your own life and change the way that you see the world or the way that you see yourself? That's a huge part.
Molly (43:18)
Mm-hmm.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (43:40)
just you can go and have these great big adventures and have all these stories and everything, but what do you do with that information and who you are as you come home? Because coming home from a trip and your daily life after a trip is just as important as going on the trip and planning the trip.
Molly (44:00)
I think that is a perfect way to end this episode. Coming home. Oh my gosh. Okay, Cheryl, like I just have goosebumps. Can you please tell women, all the ladies, where they can find you and like what you have to offer so they want to connect with you.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (44:17)
Absolutely. The easiest way to reach me is on my website. It's resettingjoy.com. And you can fill out a contact form there. I do a lot of private coaching. Occasionally, I do group coaching. If you want to go to Italy, you can come to Italy with me in October and November. That'll be up on my website here soon. You can also find me on Facebook and Instagram at resettingjoy. And please do download the Smart Travelers Guide.
or rather smart travelers checklist. It's 10 things that a lot of people don't know they need to think about or do before they go on their first trip to Europe. Some of them are safety things, some of them are things that are just gonna save you a whole lot of money. And they're common mistakes that I just don't want you to make. And also we mentioned that I've got a podcast, Wanderlust Enabled, because I'm a wanderlust enabler. So of course I would have a podcast called Wanderlust Enabled. You can find...
Molly (45:12)
Yeah.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (45:16)
Find me there every Tuesday. It's on Spotify or wherever you listen to podcasts. A little jolt of travel information and inspiration every week.
Molly (45:27)
Yeah, I love it. It was so great. Okay, Cheryl, thank you so much. This was so much fun. And I know that you and I could probably chat for like another half hour about all these travel.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (45:36)
Oh, easily. No problem. Why put a half hour on it? We could do this all day.
Molly (45:42)
Yes, we could. I mean, I know how we roll.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (45:46)
Yeah, yeah, that is how we roll.
Molly (45:49)
All right, well, thank you so much for coming and being a guest and telling ladies all the things about travel and how it can really help them access their intuition and what you want them to gain from it so that they can come home filled with their own sense of knowledge and curiosity.
Cheryl Burke | Resetting Joy (46:03)
Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.